Monday, October 22, 2012

Shawl FO

I sometimes lurk in the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry to see what's being offered. The idea to knit a beautiful pattern before it becomes public is very enticing. I like the challenge of knitting and finding any errors or typos (usually very minor) that might have found their way into the written pattern or the charts.

About a month ago I came across a pattern for a shawl that had some beads in it. I just loved the look of that shawl. I thought that this would be a good time to try this new-to-me beading technique.

Ignorance is bliss they say...well ya...it is.

It would take me an hour and a half to knit only one small repeat. This section is 24 rows of 42 stitches but it has 51 beads! I needed to knit 23 repeats in total. That's almost 1200 beads.

WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!

If it had not been for the dealine on this test knit (and my pride) I'm sure I would have put the shawl away till the urge to knit in more beads would have come again (and we know such urges never do surface again). So my plan was to knit at least one repeat per evening and some days I might start on a second one.

Once the band was done (32 hours of knitting), I picked up quite a few stitches, proceeded to do some short-row knitting and just two evenings later, the shawl that I thought would never see daylight was completed.

WHOA! Am I ever happy with myself! I just love my new shawl. It's for sure the nicest thing I've ever knitted.

The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh lace in the Oxblood colourway. Once knitted up, I see more pinks and plums than before...wonderful colour.

Matches with my rock completely ;o)

This is the Large version of this shawl. It's not huge, measuring 16'' deep and 94'' along the bottom edge.

I would order beads online next time instead of getting them at the big box store...the beads are not all the same size and many ended up being thrown away but in the end it doesn't really show.

There's this wonderful little double cable all along and it's just too cute!

Perfection as always! Truely the most gorgeous shawl I have even seen. You must feel such reward for skill and dedication. It looks very delicate your tension is amazing. Beautiful, thank you for sharing..♥Debi